1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept relate to a video wall control system, and more particularly, to a video wall control system which performs real-time monitoring and control closed circuit television (CCTV) images, split screens, and monitor merge/unmerge operations all together through a single control process by acquiring a considerable number of CCTV screens at the same time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most buildings today are equipped with security systems and security personnel for monitoring the security systems. Video wall systems are systems that can be built in the security office in a building for allowing security personnel to properly monitor the security systems in the building and to immediately take measures in response to occurrence of certain situations. The term “video wall”, as used herein, denotes an array of a plurality of monitors arranged on the same plane to operate as a large single screen.
For example, a video wall system may be built by combining multiple liquid crystal display (LCD) screens to provide a larger single screen, and may be configured to receive a variety of multimedia video signals from computers, internet protocol (IP) cameras, and CCTVs and display the received video signals on the larger single screen. Accordingly, an image can be enlarged and then displayed on an entire combined screen of the multiple LCD screens, and a user can easily identify the image from the combined screen even at a glance.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are diagrams of related-art video wall systems.
Referring to FIG. 1, a wall controller 11 transmits source input/output matrix information to an RGB matrix switch 15, and transmits monitor merge information to a video matrix 17. That is, the wall controller 11 transmits instructions to both the RGB matrix switch 15 and the video matrix 17 to perform a change of sources and merge/unmerge functions and thus to display an image on a video wall 5. For CCTV images, video sources 13 may need to be changed by using particular software, which is different from wall control software of the wall controller 11.
The video wall system of FIG. 1B, which has a similar structure to that of the video wall system of FIG. 1A, can be built more easily than the video wall system of FIG. 1A because video wall devices 18 and 19 are configured to communicate with each other through Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). However, in the video wall system of FIG. 1B, like in the video wall system of FIG. 1A, additional software, which is different from wall control software of a wall controller 11, may be needed to change video sources 13. That is, in the case of the related-art video wall systems of FIGS. 1A and 1B, control of each monitor (such as merge/unmerge), control of sources, and control of split CCTV screens are performed separately and individually. Also, the related-art video wall systems of FIGS. 1A and 1B request instructions to be entered and processed for each control process, thereby causing inconvenience to users. Also, most software for controlling a CCTV screen is designed for use in user personal computers (PCs), and thus cannot be used to monitor people from a control center. Also, as the number of monitors employed in a video wall increases, the number of images that can be displayed by each monitor decreases. Also, in the related-art video wall systems of FIGS. 1A and 1B, the wall controller 11 and the matrix switcher 15 are both needed, thereby causing an increase in manufacturing cost. For this reason, some users may request multiple screens to be merged on a monitor-by-monitor basis without using the wall controller 11. Also, since multiple video walls cannot be controlled with a single personal computer (PC), monitor extensibility and freedom may deteriorate.